Last month, I found myself aimlessly flipping through my many streaming platforms searching for a new TV series I could sink my teeth into. After seeing a reasonable amount of chatter on social media, I thought I’d give HBO’s new drama Euphoria a crack, and let me tell you: it did not disappoint.
Without much warning, the show immediately thrusts you into the perspective of a highschool student, navigating the troubled waters of drugs, sex, identity, trauma, social media, love and friendship. Throughout the first season, you become invested in the experiences of 17-year-old drug dealer Rue (played by Zendaya), angry highschool athlete Nate (played by Jacob Elordi) and Jules, a transgender girl played by Hunter Schafer, just to name a few.
The show tackles some pretty heavy, yet extremely relevant topics including toxic masculinity, consent, revenge porn, and domestic abuse, in a way that makes your brain tick well after the episode has ended. Euphoria is also full of hidden meanings: delicately-placed analogies and references to pop culture that only add to my fascination with the show.
In an interview with Allure, the show’s head makeup artist Doniella Davy, said, “there’s subliminal emotional messages always in all the makeup.” If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll be familiar with the colourful eyeliner, glitter and bold lipstick in each episode. According to Davy, it was all about character development, and “a full expression of what was going on” in each story.
For example, Jules’ ever changing makeup looks are “supposed to make you evaluate the way you frame masculinity and femininity,” according to Allure. Davy said, “even though the character of Jules is transfeminine, I wanted to make sure that her makeup looks had a not-too-polished rawness to them that was more experimental and had an artistry to it that wasn’t labeling itself as something.”
The same thought process goes for Euphoria’s main character, Rue. In one episode, the teenager wears triangles of glitter under her eyes, which Davy refers to as the “sad clown” look. “That [look] naturally gives a moody emotional effect, kind of like tears…I wanted it to touch on the sh*t Rue goes through in episode three. She does a lot of crying in that episode, so I wanted to bring that into episode four.”
Davy’s incredible artistry is just one of the deeper elements of Euphoria. In last week’s episode, appropriately titled The Next Episode, the characters find themselves at a Halloween party, where the pop culture references are rife.
Spoiler alert: Jules attends the party dressed as Juliet from Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. In Claire Danes’ iconic white dress and angel wings, she drunkenly falls into a pool and kisses Rue underwater, much like the film. She even recites the line from Act II of the play, “Although I joy in thee, I have no joy in this contract tonight. It’s too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the light in which thou doth cease to breathe.”
Cassie, who is learning how to love (and love herself), dresses up as prostitute Alabama Worley from the 1993 drama mystery True Romance. Lexi, the peacemaker of the group, dons a divisive Bob Ross costume. Kat, who is discovering her sexual empowerment, attends the party as a nun from the 1981 thriller Ms. 45, a revenge story about a mute woman who becomes a spree killer after she’s raped twice in one day.
Later in the episode, Rue interrogates a young partygoer after she catches him flirting with her little sister. During the scene, she drops multiple names from the HBO drama The Wire, an early noughties show which simultaneously followed the Baltimore Police Department and a drug dealing organisation.
“Let me be very clear with you,” Rue says. “If you so much as go past first base with my little sister, or try to get her high again, I will call Omar. I will call Marlo. I will call Avon. I will call Brother Mouzone. I will call f*ckin’ Bodie, and I will call f*cking Stringer.”
Euphoria is clearly aiming to do far more than shine a light on the harsh realities of being a teenager. The show is hiding Easter eggs that not only make us determined to decipher the analogies, but hungry for more. The good news is, Euphoria has been renewed for a second season, which means more binge-watching and far more discussions to be had.
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